New PEGI game ratings delayed until September

BBFC ratings still required on some games

The new PEGI game ratings system will not arrive in the UK now until September 2010.

The UKIE, the trade association for the UK's interactive entertainment industry, has posted an update on the delay on its website this week.

UKIE said the Departure for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has submitted a proposal outlinging areas where it thought a number of games would still require the widely-recognised BBFC ratings as well as the new age-ratings logos from PEGI.

Confusing ratings on games

TechRadar spoke with a BBFC rep earlier today, who had no comment to add regarding the matter.

The games publishers' trade body adds that such dual labelling of age-ratings logos on games "is contrary to the principles that were established in having PEGI introduced into the Digital Economy Act and if this proposal were implemented we believe it would only cause unnecessary and potentially harmful consumer confusion."

PEGI's new age-ratings system was recommended way back in 2008 by the Byron Report, which suggested that parents were confused by multiple age-ratings logos on games and that there was a clear requirement for one widely-accepted and well-recognised system to be put in place.

Two years later, for whatever reasons, it seems that the games industry is still failing to achieve this seemingly quite simple goal, which was outlined in last spring's Digital Economy Act and originally due to be launched this Spring.

UKIE now says that it is working with the DCMS to resolve the matter, but that it sees "no realistic chance of PEGI implementation before September."